Salary : $78,249.60 - $108,763.20 Annually
Location : County of San Mateo, CA
Job Type: Full-Time
Job Number: G062R
Department: Human Services Agency
Opening Date: 07/21/2026
Closing Date: 8/4/2026 11:59 PM Pacific
Bargaining Unit: 08

Description
The County of San Mateo's Human Services Agency is seeking qualified Family Care Workers (Human Services Care Counselors) for the Children and Family Services (CFS) branch. Family Care Workers provide services to children and families whose cases are assigned to Children's Services Social Workers with the goal of supporting safety for children and family preservation or reunification where possible.
Family Care Workers provide field-based services including, but not limited to, monitoring of parental care in high-risk situations, supervision of court-ordered visits between children and parents, in-home supportive services, parent education, translation and accompaniment to Emergency Response social work staff. Spanish-speaking staff are expected to provide interpretive services and be on-call. This position may be required to work nights, weekends, and holidays and be on-call after regular hours.
Additionally, Family Care Workers can and may be asked to perform duties in the any other Human Services Care Counselor assignments depending on workload/census, coverage impacts, or other reasons.
Ideal Candidate:

The ideal candidate is a compassionate, culturally responsive professional who builds trust with children and families while maintaining clear, appropriate boundaries. They are confident working with families in challenging situations, remain calm during conflict or crisis, and can de-escalate situations using sound judgment, empathy, and effective communication.
The ideal candidate will have:

• Experience working with children, youth, and families in child welfare, family support, or a related human services setting.
• Experience providing parent education, family coaching, or in-home support services to high risk/high need families.
• Demonstrated ability to engage families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and build collaborative relationships.
• The ability to step into challenging situations, take initiative, and work independently while collaborating effectively with multidisciplinary partners.
• Strong boundary-setting, de-escalation, and conflict resolution skills while maintaining a strengths-based, trauma-informed approach.
• Excellent observation, documentation, and communication skills.
• Bilingual or multilingual skills are highly desirable.

Examples Of Duties

Duties may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Family Care Worker Assignment - Central Support and Foster Family Agency:

• Provide one-on-one training to parents and/or guardian on positive parenting and practical strategies for strengthening relationships with the child.
• Provide instruction and modeling of parenting skills, including effective discipline, nurturing, intellectual stimulation, behavior management, and physical care; provide assessment of needs as appropriate.
• Provide in-home caregiving and support services to families which include meal preparation, household organizing and cleaning, supervision of children in the home, and other related tasks necessary to keep the family functioning, which are provided on both a scheduled and crisis basis.
• Provide in-home monitoring and perform unannounced home visits, including identifying and elevating potential safety risks.
• Supervise court ordered visitation between parents and child(ren).
• Assist Children's Services Social Workers with separation of children from home, placements, translations and attendance at supportive meetings.
• Transport children to supervised visits and various appointments.
• Record in Child Welfare Services Case Management System (CWS/CMS) a summary of each contact and closing summaries with/on behalf of clients or court.
• Complete administrative tasks such as record keeping, attendance at staff meetings, regular family consultation with social workers, and consultation with collateral agencies as required.
• Serve as liaison between family and social agencies.
• Testify in Court regarding observed behaviors during provision of services such as visits or parent education sessions.
• Provide relief coverage at the residential facility.
• Perform after hours on-call duties.
• Perform related duties as assigned.

Qualifications
Knowledge of:

• Child and adolescent development and behavior.
• Principles and practices of childcare and custody.
• Group dynamics.
• Infant and preschool development stages.
• Common safety practices and procedures including first aid.
• Individual and group counseling techniques, especially behavior modification.

Skill/Ability to:

• Effectively engage children, youth and adults.
• Provide care for infants, preschoolers, youth and adults.
• Provide accurate observation and effective reporting of parental and child behaviors.
• Assess appropriateness of parenting skills and behaviors, as well as child's safety.
• Teach families how to effectively maintain a supportive home environment and how to effectively manage the behavior of children and youth under their care.
• Work effectively in a multidisciplinary team-based setting.
• Sense, evaluate, and handle tense group and individual situations as they develop.
• Make good, independent decisions and accept responsibility for those decisions.
• Exercise good independent judgment and remain calm in emergency situations.
• Deal effectively with parents, other agencies, and the general public.
• Instruct, train and provide general oversight to new or lower-level personnel.

Education and Experience:

Any combination of education and experience that would likely provide the required knowledge, skills and abilities is qualifying. A typical way to qualify is:
Human Services Care Counselor I: Eighteen units in any of the following areas: Psychology, Sociology, Counseling, Child Development or related fields and eighteen months experience working with children or families or related work experience with families in their own homes.
Human Services Care Counselor II: Eighteen months of experience providing advice, assistance, supervision and direction to dependent and neglected adolescent age children or providing services, monitoring, supervision and assessment of children and their families whose cases are assigned to Children's Services Social Workers.
Licensure/Certification/Other Requirements:

Per California Dept. of Social Services Interim Licensing Standards, if assigned to Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Program, direct care staff shall:

• Be at least 21 years of age; and
• Previously been employed as a full-time or served as a volunteer at a group home, short-term residential therapeutic program, or substance abuse treatment program for at least one year; OR
• A Bachelor of Arts or Sciences Degree in Psychology, Sociology, Counseling, Child Development or related field; OR
• Have completed 12 semester units of Early Childhood Education, Adolescent Development, or Foster and Kinship Care Education, or Psychology and have completed at least 100 hours of on-the-job experience with youth (hours may be completed after starting employment at the facility. Pending completion of the 100 hours, staff shall not be counted in the staff to child ratio and shall not be left unsupervised with children).

Application/Examination

Open and Promotional. Anyone may apply. Current County of San Mateo and County of San Mateo Superior Court of California employees with at least six months (1040 hours) of continuous service in a classified regular, probationary, extra help/limited term position prior to the final filing date will receive five points added to their final passing score on this examination. Responses to the supplemental questions must be submitted in addition to our regular employment application form. A resume will not be accepted as a substitute for the required employment application and supplemental questionnaire.

The examination process will consist of an application screening based on the candidates' application and responses to the supplemental questions. Candidates who pass the application screening will be invited to a panel interview (weight: 100%). Depending on the number of applicants, an application appraisal of education and experience may be used in place of other examinations or further evaluation of work experience may be conducted to group applicants by level of qualification. All applicants who meet the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement through any subsequent phase of the examination. All examinations will be given in San Mateo County, California and applicants must participate at their own expense.

IMPORTANT: Applications for this position will only be accepted online. If you are currently on the County's website, you may click the "Apply" button. If you are not on the County's website, please go tohttps://jobs.smcgov.org to apply.

Tentative Recruitment Schedule
Final Filing Date: Tuesday, August 4, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PSTApplication Screening: Wednesday, August 5, 2026Combined Panel Interviews: Tuesday, August 18, 2026

01

IMPORTANT: Applicants for this position are required to submit responses to the following supplemental questions. Your responses will give us additional information about your background and experience related to this position and will be used in the selection process. Be concise and specific. Neatness, clarity of expression, grammar, spelling and ability to follow instructions will be considered in the evaluation process. A resume will not be accepted as a substitute for your responses.

• Proceed to supplemental questions.

02

Describe the education, training, and experience that qualify you for the Family Care Worker position. Include examples of your experience engaging children and families, providing parent education or family support services, working with families in crisis or conflict, collaborating with community partners, and any bilingual or multilingual skills that would support your work in this role.
03

Describe a time when you needed to establish or maintain clear boundaries with a family or client while preserving a respectful working relationship. What was the situation, what actions did you take, and what was the outcome?
04

Describe your experience providing parent education, coaching, or skill-building. Include the topics you addressed, the strategies you used, and how you determined whether the parent or caregiver was making progress.
05

How did you learn about this position?

• County of San Mateo Website
• County of San Mateo Job Interest Card Notification
• County Hosted Virtual Event
• County Hosted Job Fair
• CalOpps.org
• College/University Career Center
• Community-based Organization Posting
• Facebook/Instagram
• Friend or Relative
• GovernmentJobs.com
• Indeed
• Job Fair
• LinkedIn
• Professional Publication/Website (Please specify in next question)
• X (formerly called Twitter)
• Zip Recruiter
• Other (Please specify in next question)

06

If you answered, "Professional Publication/Website" or "Other" to the above question, please indicate below how you learned about this position. Your response to this question will help us in better marketing County jobs. Type NA if not applicable.
Required Question